Performing policy conflict detection and resolution using semantic analysis

Abstract

A method and system for managing a policy includes, in response to determining the presence of a conflict, determining a semantic equivalence between a component of a policy rule and at least one additional policy rule. The determining a semantic equivalence is performed by using a semantic reasoning algorithm that includes the steps of determining a first policy target of a first policy rule and a second policy target of a second policy rule, determining a meaning of the first policy target and a meaning of the second policy rule, assigning a confidence value based on the determined meaning of the first policy, assigning a confidence value based on the determined meaning of the second policy, performing a semantic comparison between the first policy target and the second policy target, and determining, based at least in part on the semantic comparison, the presence of a conflict between the first and second policy targets.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0001]This invention relates in general to the fields of policy management, network management, and self-management (i.e., autonomic computing systems), and more specifically to the sub-field of policy conflict detection and resolution.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0002]Conflict detection and resolution is a complex topic. There are a host of references on conflict detection. FIG. 1 shows a representative and comprehensive Policy Based Network Management (PBNM) system known in the art. This architecture explicitly identifies five different levels of conflict detection and resolution: globally between policy servers, globally across the different components of a particular policy server, locally for all Policy Decision Points (PDPs) in a domain of a policy server, local to a particular PDP within a specific domain of a given policy server, and local per device (i.e., a PEP) in a domain.[0003]The architecture shown in FIG. 1 is based on the following definition of ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0016]In accordance with yet a further feature, a method and system are disclosed for managing a policy, where the method includes using one or more of an information model, a data model, and an ontology to associate semantics from one or more different sources to one or more policies in a set of policies, establish a relationship of semantic equivalence between the policies in the set of policies, and determine a degree of conflict between the policies by using the relationship of semantic equivalence in a semantic equivalence algorithm.

[0017]In accordance with still a further feature, the present invention includes estimating, based on the degree of conflict which has been determined, a probability of two or more of the policies conflicting with each other.

Problems solved by technology

A policy conflict occurs when the conditions of two or more policy rules that apply to the same set of managed objects are simultaneously satisfied, but the actions of two or more of these policy rules conflict with each other.

Unfortunately, this architecture does not address semantic conflicts.

However, these mechanisms fail to detect all of the above-mentioned types of policy conflicts.

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